


Focus on Me

by Soulvaren5555



Series: Clone Wars Febuwhump 2021 [4]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Ahsoka Tano Needs a Hug, Ahsoka Tano Whump, Ahsoka Tano-centric, FebuWhump2021, Field Surgery, Gen, Hurt Ahsoka Tano, Hurt/Comfort, Impaling, Jesse is a good bro, Kix is a lifesaver, No Beta We Die Like Clones, Pain, Protective Ahsoka Tano, Protective Anakin Skywalker, Rex is worried off-screen, Whump, snips and skyguy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:08:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29207127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulvaren5555/pseuds/Soulvaren5555
Summary: Febuwhump 2021 - Day 4: Impaling | Day 17: Field surgery | Day 23: "Don't look"When Ahsoka is badly injured mid-battle, requiring Kix to treat her, Anakin is there to help distract her from the pain.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-5597 | Jesse & Ahsoka Tano, CT-6116 | Kix & Ahsoka Tano
Series: Clone Wars Febuwhump 2021 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2139531
Comments: 4
Kudos: 110





	Focus on Me

**Author's Note:**

> Three prompts in one, heck yeah! I... don't really have anything else to say, except nothing bad happened to me today (so far), unlike the past three days, so that's great, right?
> 
> Except I only got four hours of sleep the night before but shh-

The battle was going pretty well, all things considered. It was yet another ground mission, and it sounded simple; break through enemy lines and take their base. It wasn’t uncommon for the 501st to be involved in missions with a lot of explosions and chaos, especially since they were being led by Anakin Skywalker, the unconventional yet effective General.

Indeed there was plenty of destruction. Both sides suffered losses, though there were more injuries among the clones than deaths. It wasn’t easy getting into the building, that much was true. The battalion split into two groups; one led by Anakin and Captain Rex to storm the base and the other led by Ahsoka to take care of the droids on the outside.

The mission ended up being a success, with Anakin and Rex’s group successfully capturing the base. The battle outside was still ongoing, the battle droids showing no signs of letting up despite losing ground. Their numbers were dropping quickly despite their persistence, matched by the determination of Ahsoka’s group to drive them out.

Ahsoka had been keeping count of how many droids she destroyed at first. With every swing of her sabers, the number went up. She even kicked a couple of them, which would have definitely made Cody proud; she was the one who asked him to teach her, and he was more than willing to oblige. Unfortunately, the fight slowly wore her out to the point of her officially losing count.

_1, 2, 3... 44, 45, 46… 50... 56? 55? Or was it 57?_

That didn’t matter nearly as much as keeping as many of her men alive as possible. She couldn’t afford to fail them, not again. She focused on going after the droids that got close to killing the troopers surrounding her, jumping in when she knew said troopers wouldn’t be fast enough to react. A few were still lost, but the death toll on their side was kept low.

“Not many left, sir!” Jesse shouted to her. Even with his helmet on, she could hear the triumphant grin on his face as he gunned down a super battle droid. She shot him a grin of her own.

“Good!” she called back. “If we keep this up, we’ll win for su-”

She cut herself off upon noticing something airborne headed towards them. Her gaze snapped up to meet an incoming missile, one fired by the opposition; presumably a last-ditch effort to wipe them out. Aware of the other troopers in close proximity, including Jesse, her protective instincts kicked into high gear.

“Get back!”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Ahsoka deactivated her lightsabers and poured all of her focus into the Force. Thrusting her hands out, she Force-pushed everyone out of the way as they were scrambling to find cover. She didn’t waste time in trying to get herself somewhere safe, nearly tripping over her own feet due to how much of her energy she spent. Despite her efforts, she didn’t make it far before the missile struck the earth.

It didn’t detonate close enough to badly burn her, but it was close enough to send her flying across the rocky terrain and annihilate the assault tank a couple yards away from her. Her montrals rang as she tumbled onto the ground, letting go of her lightsabers and losing consciousness for only a few fleeting seconds.

When she slowly opened her eyes, her vision was hazy. Voices rang out in the air amid the blaster fire, loud and urgent, but she couldn’t connect them to any specific person. She struggled to get air in and out of her lungs after being winded by the explosion. Her thoughts were scrambled and confused. Everything happened too quickly; she was fine one moment, and then the next thing she knew, she was barely able to move, let alone stand.

It didn’t occur to her that she was injured until she made an attempt to push herself back up. Waves of intense pain coursed through her body, sending her back down. She bit back a yell, instead hissing through clenched teeth. One of the voices was getting closer now, the urgency it carried more clear. She couldn’t make out what anyone was saying.

Ahsoka couldn’t get a good look at the source of the pain in her abdomen, causing her to freeze up. She was losing strength quickly. Pained blue eyes darted about, searching for someone, anyone, who could help her. _Fear-pain-distress_ reached Anakin from her via their bond, to which she received a heavy amount of _surprise-distress_ from him, along with restrained _fear_.

It almost _hurt_ how desperate he was to reach her, but that was a mere pinch compared to the white-hot pain still burning in her abdomen.

“...mander! Commander Tano!” she vaguely heard someone shout. Lifting her head to get a glimpse of the one who spoke her name, struggling to focus her eyes in the process, she finally caught sight of... was she hallucinating, or was that metal sticking out of her stomach?

Jesse was by her side now; she recognized the cog symbol on his helmet, even through the fog. She lifted her quivering hand, only able to move it a few inches off of the ground before it dropped against her will, alarming her further. If she wasn’t even able to hold either hand up, her condition must be severe; or maybe it wasn’t, and she was just being weak. She wanted to get up, she _had_ to get up, _she had to make sure everyone was okay-_

“Sir!” A firm hand was planted on her shoulder, pushing her back down and holding her there. She registered that hand as belonging to Jesse, who spoke to her with a stern voice. “Don’t move, you hear me? Do not move. Kix’ll be here soon, just hang in there.”

She tried to lift herself off the ground once more, weakly pushing back against his hand, only to have the white-hot pain flare back up. Jesse’s insistence made it clear she wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon, so she leaned back and released a shaky breath. She could feel Anakin’s presence growing closer by the second; that alone was enough to comfort her, despite being in so much pain.

Kix reached them first, carrying a medkit and kneeling down beside Ahsoka, across from Jesse. Relief flooded her as soon as she saw him, but that relief soon transformed into dread after she took notice of his reaction at the sight of her. Her condition was definitely as severe as she previously thought it was.

“What happened?” Kix asked, setting the medkit down beside him.

“Clankers launched a bomb,” Jesse explained tightly. “She couldn’t get far enough away in time. She got the rest of us to safety first, and she couldn’t... I’m so sorry, Commander. I should’ve been faster.”

Upon hearing how defeated he sounded, Ahsoka found herself finally tearing up. She put more effort into moving her hand this time, able to lift it up higher than before. She rested it gently on top of the hand Jesse gripped her shoulder with.

“S’okay,” she murmured, eyes half-shut. “It’s... it’s not... Jess...”

She couldn’t finish her sentence, the exhaustion and pain preventing her from speaking coherently. She only let out a soft moan. Her eyes nearly rolled back into her head. Unconsciousness tugged at the back of her mind, but sleeping in a battlefield was dangerous, _especially_ during an active battle, so she kept her heavy eyes at least half-way open.

“Stay with us, Commander,” Jesse urged, using a reassuring tone. “You’re gonna be okay.”

Kix nodded, glancing at her face before returning her attention to her wounds. “There’s quite a bit of shrapnel in her abdomen. I can get those out now, but it’s this bigger shard of metal I’m worried about. This looks like it came from one of their assault tanks, rather than a bomb.”

Oh. She wasn’t hallucinating. _There was a piece of metal embedded in her stomach._

“There was an assault tank nearby when the bomb landed,” Jesse confirmed. “It was decimated. A piece of it must’ve flown off.”

She thought she saw Kix wince, but she couldn’t tell for sure. “You should contact the General, Jesse. I have a feeling she’ll need him here for this.”

Letting the implication of that statement go over her head - that being the amount of pain his treatment was probably going to cause her - she looked over at Jesse as he brought out his communicator.

“N-no,” she managed to say, her voice barely above a whisper. It was enough to catch his attention.

“Commander?”

“He’s alm... almost... close. He... knows.”

Ahsoka coughed and winced. The string of words that left her mouth seemed understandable in her head; to everyone else, her speech seemed scrambled, but she succeeded at getting the point across. Jesse nodded and put away the communicator. He understood by now that Anakin already knowing she was in trouble and vice versa was a ‘Jedi thing’, and so did Kix.

Her eyes closed as Anakin’s presence drew closer. She found comfort in it despite it radiating so much worry, and she allowed herself to fully relax once he arrived. Jesse backed up to give him enough room as he kneeled down by her side. Her hand slid off of Jesse’s when he moved. She brought it back to her side, forcing her eyes open once more.

Her Master and Kix were exchanging words when she returned to reality. When she focused on them, she realized they were talking about what happened to her.

All of his attention turned to her as soon as he noticed her staring up at him with dull, pained eyes. “Snips,” he breathed. Much as he tried to hide it, concern was written all over his face. Even through foggy vision, Ahsoka could see it clear as day.

“Hey, Master...”

“I’ve got the equipment out and ready, sir.”

“Good, Kix. Let’s get this done quickly.”

Ahsoka glanced over at her hand as soon as she felt Anakin take it in his own gloved hand. Reassurance and comfort reached her through their Force bond in time to prevent her from focusing on what Kix was about to do. She sighed and blinked heavily, trying to keep herself awake for his sake. He would only worry more if she lost consciousness now, and she would be drawn closer to death’s door.

“Listen, Snips. Can you hear me?” he asked, speaking slow enough for her to understand. She gave a small and stiff nod in response.

“That’s good, that’s good. Kix is gonna help you now. I won’t sugarcoat anything; it will hurt, more than it probably already does, but it needs to be done. Try not to fight him, okay? You can squeeze my hand if you want.”

Ahsoka gulped, a cold fist of dread in her chest. Regardless of how she felt about it, the only other choice was death, and she didn’t want to die. The shrapnel and metal piece embedded in her skin needed to be removed. If she could hold up in a battlefield, she could make it through this.

“O-okay,” she stammered, taking a deep breath and bracing herself.

Her nerves were set ablaze when Kix removed the first shard of shrapnel. She immediately tightened her previously non-existent grip on Anakin’s hand, hissing through her teeth. Force, that _hurt_. Temporarily forgetting what her Master asked her to do, she kicked and writhed in pain, hearing multiple voices talking at once.

“Commander!”

“Commander, please be still!”

“Jesse, hold her legs down!”

A pair of hands pinned her legs to the ground. In a panicked state, she lifted her head in an attempt to see what was happening, only for her Master to gently push it back down with his free hand.

“Don’t look,” he advised softly. “You need to be still. Please.”

She wanted to protest, because being able to see what was going on might help, but she kept her mouth shut. That was the key word: _might_. She must have looked completely awful, if Anakin was telling her not to look. She decided she would keep her eyes on him the entire time.

Despite trying her best not to move, she twitched and shuddered involuntarily with each piece of shrapnel removed. If it weren’t for Jesse holding her trembling legs, she might have eventually ended up kicking Kix’s helmet off. The hand not grasping Anakin’s with a death grip was curled into a tight fist.

Every time she forced herself to open her eyes, she could see her Master wincing out of sympathy. He didn’t need to say anything; guilt practically radiated from him. Tears rolled down her stricken face.

As her attention started to drift away from Anakin and towards the burning pain racking her body, he spoke to her again, using the same easy-to-follow speech from before.

“Hey, hey, stay with me. That’s it, just keep looking at me. You’re gonna be okay, Snips. I know it hurts, but Kix is almost done. You’re doing so well, just hang in there, alright?”

He didn’t say it, but she knew very well what he wanted to say. _I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you._

Ahsoka managed a weak smile, her bottom lip quivering. She fought the heavy urge to close her eyes again, keeping her pained gaze solely on Anakin. She wanted to reassure him, to support him as he was supporting her. It hurt to only barely be able to help. She could only send him reassurance of her own through their bond.

_It’s okay. It’s not your fault._

She had no idea how much time passed, but she was overwhelmingly relieved when Kix was done with his treatment. All of the shrapnel was out of her, picked out and placed in a pile of blood-stained metal shards on the ground. The worst of the cuts were swiftly stitched up, and they were all covered with bacta patches.

She initially panicked when she and Anakin were told the bigger metal piece couldn’t be removed until they reached the medbay. Her sharp breaths quickened. She wanted it out. It wasn’t supposed to be inside of her, it was causing her so much agony and she _wanted it out_.

“Out... out, please, _out_ -”

“Ahsoka! Ahsoka, stop moving!”

She didn’t realize she was squirming until Anakin placed both hands on her shoulders, preventing her from moving any further. She stole a quick glance at Kix and Jesse, who was still pinning her legs down, before noticing her arms were off the ground, reaching for the metal that had impaled her. She immediately dropped them and froze up, pressing her lips together and looking away.

“We can’t take it out right now, okay?” Anakin told her, frowning.

Kix nodded. “You’ll bleed out faster than we can get you to the medbay, Commander. I’m going to stabilize it and remove it when we’re off the battlefield.”

“Don’t worry, Snips. We won’t let it stay there.”

Teary blue eyes landed on Anakin, then Kix and Jesse, then Anakin again. He wore a small grin on his face, which made her slowly grin back at him. “You... won’t?”

He raised an eyebrow and chuckled, taking his hands off of her shoulders. “No, no, we’re going to keep the sharp piece of steel right there. You might have to walk around with it for the rest of your life, actually.”

Ahsoka couldn’t help but laugh at Anakin’s classic witty remark. Jesse chuckled at that, removing his hands from her legs. Even Kix huffed with amusement. Laughing hurt her more, sending another shock of pain through her, but it made her feel good. She would be able to properly assure Anakin that it wasn’t his fault she was injured after the procedure that awaited her, and everything would be okay.

As the clone medic gathered what he needed to handle the impaled object, she noticed two troopers headed towards them with a stretcher. It was then that she fully realized the battle was over. The droids had been completely driven out, likely nearing the end of Kix’s field procedure, and now they could recover knowing they’d succeeded in their mission. She looked to Anakin with a relieved expression, before the thought of a close friend surfaced in her mind.

“Master... will Rex...?”

Anakin nodded. “Yes, Rex will be there after we’re finished. I told him to stay back at the base we captured with the other troops in our group. Just know that he wanted to see you. He’s really worried about you.”

The girl’s smile grew ever so slightly, even as guilt trickled in. _Oh, Rex..._

“Oh, and before you start worrying about it-” Anakin held up both of Ahsoka’s lightsabers in front of him, a sight which eased her and distracted her from what Kix was doing. “-your lightsabers are right here. I should probably be lecturing you about not letting them go, but I think I can skip it this time.”

He leaned in a little and lowered his voice. “Y’know, Obi-Wan drops his more often than he likes to admit, which happens to be never. He never wants to admit it.”

He rolled his eyes and smirked. “Good thing Cody is more than willing to share his experiences.”

Ahsoka chuckled quietly. Good ol’ Cody. She couldn’t wait to tell him about the droids she’d kicked during the battle.

Her eyes were too heavy to hold open any longer. She shut them calmly, focusing on her breathing. She ignored the throbbing pain in her abdomen, which was steadily fading as she grew closer to losing consciousness.

“Thank you,” she murmured, meant for Anakin, Kix and Jesse. That was the last thing she said before finally drifting to sleep, with the knowledge that she was safe.


End file.
